


Blank Canvas

by cameronclaire



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flirting, M/M, Martial Arts Teacher Roxas, Meet-Cute, Reincarnation, Winter, tattoo artist axel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29662911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cameronclaire/pseuds/cameronclaire
Summary: Axel introduces himself to the cute blond loitering outside his tattoo parlor for the fifth day in a row.
Relationships: Axel/Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	Blank Canvas

**Author's Note:**

> Copied this over from tumblr so I don't lose it 😅

He’d been staring again. A slight blond in an oversized black hoodie stood shivering outside the tattoo parlor window for the fifth time this week, one palm pressed against the frost-kissed glass. His breaths were light, thoughtful puffs. He had had an expression on his face like he was lost in a memory or maybe standing in the Louvre, experiencing beauty for the first time etched in whirls of paint. Wind had tousled his gold, unkempt hair and tugged at his hood, snapping him from his trance, and he took a few steps away. 

“There goes my future husband,” Axel had told Xigbar at the station next to him, who’d caught him staring back more than once.

Xigbar raised his marker to let out a hearty laugh. “Might want to let _him_ know that.”

Like a leaf tossed to and fro by a careless breeze, the blond circled back not five minutes later. Xigbar whistled to Axel, jerked his thumb toward the door. Axel nodded, and before he knew what he was doing, he’d shrugged on his leather jacket, and stepped outside.

“Hey there.” Axel leaned against the door like he owned the place, which he planned to, someday, and quirked an eyebrow at the blond. The blond turned to him, arms crossing over his chest, startled and then defensive.

“If you came out here to ask if I’m old enough to be here,” he said, fixing Axel with soft blue eyes Axel wasn’t sure he could tear his own away from, “you’re wasting your breath. I’m twenty-five.”

The blond was even prettier in person, his skin pale gold, his lips pouty, pink, and pierced with a simple silver hoop. Faint five o’ clock shadow highlighted his sharp jawline and when the sun hit his wind tousled hair just right, reflecting off the snow, he looked damn near angelic.

Axel crossed his arms right back, smirk slowly spreading as the blond’s flush grew under his silent stare. “Actually,” Axel drawled, “I came to ask if it hurt when you fell from heaven.”

Silence passed between them, puffs of steam rising from both of their noses and then the blond snorted, more air puffing up. His arms dropped from his chest, hands slipping into his pockets. His lip twitched up ever so slightly. “Stung a bit, yeah.” His brilliant eyes shifted back to the window, where Axel’s art work was on prominent display among the other tattoo designs. Fire, hearts, monsters, clocks, keys. “You?”

Axel didn’t respond right away, took a step up to his side, examined the work in the window himself. The blond chanced a peek up and Axel was waiting to meet his gaze with a dazzling smile. “Feeling a little better every day.”

The blond chuckled again, a low, musical sound Axel decided he’d like very much to hear again, and turned back to the window.

“See anything you like?” Axel teased, and he fancied the burn spreading to the tip of the blond’s ears wasn’t from the sudden rush of wind that pulled tendrils of red-gold hair out of Axel’s hasty bun.

The blond glanced up at him again, smiling now, finally, softly. “Maybe.”

“Been here everyday this week, and he says _maybe.”_ Axel propped his arm on the window, leaned again, trying to hold the man in place with his eyes, keep him from darting off again too soon.

“You…” the blond grimaced, “noticed that…?” His feet shuffled, crunching at the snow underfoot, piled below the parlor’s black awning. “I was just… waiting for my class to start.”

Axel shrugged. “You work next door, right? New karate studio with all the Christmas lights? We love seeing the little tykes walking by practicing their moves. Hi-yah!” Axel pantomimes a double fisted punch. “You the one on the sign? How do you say it?”

“Roxas.”

_“Roxas.”_

“It’s taekwondo, technically.”

“Meaning you think you could kick my ass,” Axel leaned a little closer, smile slanting, “technically.”

“Maybe.” Roxas didn’t flinch away though Axel was near twice his height, just blinked up at him, his own smile still soft, and tilted his head toward the window. “These all yours?”

“Some of ‘em.” Axel swished two fingers in a circle at the center of the display, exhaling hot air like one might cigarette smoke. “Mainly these here.”

Axel watched Roxas’ eyes widen, his mouth opening into a broader smile. “So, the best ones.”

“Don’t let Xiggy catch you saying that.”

“Right. Sorry! They just… I don’t know. They look like something from another life time.” Roxas sounded almost reverent.

“Hm,” Axel scanned the strokes his pen had made, at times it felt like his mind was possessed by the dark whirling lines, ghosts of things he’d never seen under the light of the Chicago sun. “Well, maybe they are.” His lip quirked. Something about Roxas reminded him of those designs, foreign yet familiar. “Maybe we’ve met before.”

Roxas examines him for a long moment, vibrant hair fading from red to gold, knotted messily at the back of his head, violet, inverted tears below feline-green eyes. Easily over six feet tall, but gaunt, muscled but lean. Smile so blinding it was a little manic. Roxas lifted a hand, fingerless gloves revealing pink skin, touching one of the marks below Axel’s eye with a featherlight touch. “I think you’d be hard to forget.”

“That’s the idea, _Roxas.”_ He returned the soft touch with a brush of his fingertips along the arm of Roxas’ coat, applying just a little more pressure to turn him back toward the window. “So,” he scanned the designs, wondering if any of them were worthy to mark the strong but delicate looking little thing in front of him. He ended up fantasizing about Roxas’ bare skin, muscle, sun freckles, battle bruises, “you a virgin, then?”

Roxas scoffed, an indignant puff of air, whirling, knocking the hand still on his shoulder aside. “I told you I’m _twenty-five._ Not that it’s any of your goddamn business— ** _”_**

“God, no,” Axel choked, hands lifting in mock surrender. His feet led him a careful step back. “Sorry, I meant tattoos. _Ink_ virgin. Do you have any _ink_?”

“Oh. Fuck me. I’m sorry.” Roxas shook his head, looked at Axel sideways, eyes apologetic, tilt of his smile playful, “I thought you really did want me to kick your ass.”

Axel mirrored both, reaching back to rub at this neck. “Wouldn’t be my first suggestion, cutie, no.”

Roxas’ cheeks flushed ever so faintly though the wind had died down, and he returned his hand and gaze to the window. “No. I was just thinking about it, I guess.”

“Blank canvas, huh? I can help you with that.” Axel turned along with him, nudged the small stranger’s elbow gently with his. “Or I can just keep you company if you ever want to wait _outside_ of the freezing cold.”

Roxas laughs and Axel thinks again that it sounds like music and can’t even hate himself for the thought because it’s true.

“It’s so fucking cold. You would be my new best friend.” He meets Axel’s eyes, an apology still set in the dip between his brows, “I have class in a few minutes but…” He lifted a casual shoulder, offered a hopeful slip of a smile. “After?”

Axel leaned back against the glass and nodded, “I’ll be around.” His shift ended in fifteen minutes, but Roxas didn’t need to know that. Xigbar was sure to let him stay an extra hour or two. He reached out a hand, “Axel. Your new best friend.” He smiled, too wide again, winked, “Get it memorized.”

Roxas took his hand firmly, his skin icy but his grip strong and snorted, “See you around, Axel.” They traded smiles and then Roxas was walking off, speaking without turning back around. “Excited to see how you plan to take my virginity.” 


End file.
